Review
Self to Self collects eleven articles David Velleman has published in the last decade, as well as two previously unpublished articles ("The Centered Self" and "A Brief Introduction to Kantian Ethics"), and a useful and substantive introduction. This is an outstanding group of articles: each one is truly excellent, and a number of them rank among the best recent philosophical papers on moral psychology, ethics and agency. . . . It almost goes without saying that
Self to Self is required reading for anyone who has any interest in any of these topics. --
Sergio Tenenbaum in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (http://ndpr.nd.edu/review.cfm?id=10843)Following J. David Velleman's papers as they are published, it is easy to wonder how a single person could have so many good thoughts on so many topics. Read as a collection, the thirteen essays of
Self to Self suggest an answer to that question. In these essays a single set of insights is applied over a range of philosophical contexts. What emerges is a gratifyingly rich picture of the self, informing all of the essays but only partially visible in each. . . Anyone who reads this collection is . . . certain to be enlightened and provoked. Above all,
Self to Self provides a compelling model of the character at its core -- a human mind trying to understand itself and to offer reasons we all can share. --
Marya Schechtman in Ethics, October 2006
Product Description
This book brings together essays on personal identity, autonomy, and moral emotions by the distinguished philosopher J. David Velleman. Although each of the essays was written as an independent piece, they are unified by an encompassing thesis, that there is no single entity denoted by "the self," as well as by themes from Kantian ethics, psychoanalytic theory, social psychology, and Velleman's work in the philosophy of action. Two of the essays were selected by the editors of Philosophers' Annual as being among the ten best papers in their year of publication.
See all Editorial Reviews